Pontius Pilate made the decision based on political expediency, he didn’t wash his hands because he Believed the Jewish religion had any merit or that the Philosophy of Jesus threatened his personal beliefs, he made the decision based on the cold hard reality of Native politics in his Province: The vast majority wanted Jesus on a cross, and if it didn’t happen there was a real possibility of a messy revolution down the line.

Every decision every Church, specifically the Christian Churches, has made since has been Political. I’m not sure why this is a surprise, and I’m not sure why the decision by the Canadian Branch of the Anglican Church not to allow same-sex marriages or “Blessings” came as a surprise.

Think aboot how slowly, clumsily and ineptly the various Churches reacted to the horrific abuses against Natives in Canada’s Residential School, or how the American Catholic Church covered up pedophiliac Priests… or, I don’t know, The Children’s Crusade? On some level Religions are normally — Sc*entology notwithstanding — run by caring, normal, non-irrational and/or non-hate-filled people. There are always some fringe players, but the Anglican Bishops who voted against allowing gay marriage by Anglican Ministers don’t want harm to be done to gay people just like Pontius didn’t want to kill Jesus, but sacrifices had to be made because of the politics involved. And that usually means putting some Random Dude up on a cross, or barring two Random Dudes from getting their Civil Ceremony “Blessed”.

If you want to understand the politics you have to go back to — roughly — 1600AD, or thereaboots, when a bunch of religious zealots left Europe for Everywhere Else, bringing their smallpox and Christ with them. Religion was the First Wave of Globalization and They managed to convert or slaughter aboot three billion people. The thing is, while they were gone adventuring, 400 years passed and no one in Europe or Canada or America… well, parts of America, gives a Rats Ass aboot religion anymore.

And now all the Great Christian Churches have more members “Down South” than “At Home”, so that now the average Anglican Church member isn’t so much European White as African Black. Today 80% of Anglicans are either SE Asian or African and they’re very, very Fundamentalist. So the Anglican Church — just like the Catholic Church — isn’t European anymore. Now, think of that voting power. Think of the Politics of having 80% of the membership of your group ten times more Fundamental than the other 20%. Now think of the actual, physical parts of a Church. The bank accounts, the buildings, the vestments, the land.

So when 80% of the Anglican Church membership said last year, and implied again this year, “condone Gay Marriage and we’ll cut you right out of the Church, then we’ll take control over all the Church Properties and Assets in Canada and America and Britain and you can go pray in Some Gay Couple’s fabulously refurnished basement” the Bishops said “uhm, okay, maybe we’ll wait until 2013 before deciding anything.” So now, instead of having a Church being blown up over the summer and a really, really nasty schism, the Anglicans have another few years to find a solution — and despite what the Anglican Mothership has been saying recently, a schism is exactly what would have started with a Pro Vote.

There are a lot of wonderful Ironies in this. In 1900 there were 10 million Christians living in Africa, or aboot 10% of the population. Seven years ago there were 360 million, or aboot 50% of Africans. In that time Europe and Canada and most Developed Nations stopped believing. In our multi-cultural societies God has become a lowercase “g”.

The American chunk of the Anglican Church has already approved a liturgy for same-sex blessings and appointed an openly gay bishop. Beyond the reaction from Africa’s Churches, several Anglican Churches in America have formed their own associations directly with the Fundamentalist Churches of Africa… in essence they (and their donations and land and buildings) are no longer part of the American Branch of Anglicans. There are also Anglican Churches in British Columbia that have broken away from the “Anglican Church of Canada” and formed the “Anglican Communion in Canada” based entirely on the issue of gay marriage/Blessings.

One Billion Catholics have been dealing with the same situation for a lot longer, which is why you haven’t heard a Pope say “that’s fabulous” or “ribbed for her pleasure.” Religion had nothing to do with Canadian Anglican Bishops voting against Gay Marriage, just like Religion has nothing to do with God, it’s always been aboot Politics.

.

This post includes 36% recycled material… Marc Hall, in case anyone’s wondering, was a Toronto high school kid who wanted to bring his boyfriend to his Catholic School 2002 Prom. Eventually it was allowed.

.

.

.

If you find a broken link, or the YouTube stuff isn’t loading
properly, let me know and I’ll find an alternative…
I’m Canadian, it’s what we do. Off the ice.

Share this:

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

About Gabriel

I’ve lived in fifty-two places. I've been paid to pick stones out of fields, take backstage photos of Britney Spears, and report on Internet privacy issues. My photos have been published in several newspapers, and a couple of magazines.

I never saw it either… except for a few moments during a commercial break from whatever I was watching on another channel. That might have been Shark Week on The Discovery Channel. I found the whole “Kids In The Hall” connection a little weird… I half expected Dave Foley to show up in a scene wearing a dress.

To be honest I think I was Marc Halled out by the time the movie came around. What was the context for the “your tits” thing? You should definitely try to find out if your scene made the cut…